犹豫不决
yoú yù bù jué · HSK 7
to waver
🪙 犹豫不决 = hesitate + hesitate + not + decide; stuck wavering, no verdict
Four chars stack the idea: 犹豫 is a two-word compound both meaning to waver, then 不决 = not + decide. So it literally reads waver-waver-not-decide: too torn to settle on anything. A coin flipped over and over but never caught.
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.